The first split went very smoothly. In the blink of an eye, the two strands of Wood Spiritual Qi became four clusters of Explosive Spirit Power.
The Explosive Spirit Power produced by a single split was extremely weak. Even if all four clusters erupted together, they could not compare to a single Fireball Technique. After all, aside from its inherent might, the Fireball Technique could continue burning and inflicting damage.
Xu Chunniang's expression remained unchanged. Under her control, the four clusters of Explosive Spirit Power split again, becoming eight clusters!
Even while controlling eight clusters of Explosive Spirit Power, Xu Chunniang still had strength to spare. She took a deep breath, a trace of gravity appearing on her face. She was about to carry out a third split on all eight clusters at once!
No one knew what she did, but the eight previously stable clusters of Explosive Spirit Power split once more, becoming sixteen clusters!
"Not good!"
Xu Chunniang's expression shifted slightly. She could feel that this Explosive Spirit Power was far too violent. Almost the instant it appeared, nearly half of it slipped out of her control!
Almost on instinct, she activated the Spirit Void Steps and retreated without hesitation.
She had barely taken a step back when she heard a boom. The Explosive Spirit Power burst apart in a frantic chain of explosions, blasting a massive crater into the ground.
Xu Chunniang's face turned pale, and her heart pounded wildly, nearly crashing out of her chest.
If she had not reacted quickly just now, she would likely have been blown to death by the Spirit Blast Technique she had cobbled together herself!
"The Spirit Blast Technique's power is simply too terrifying. This is only sixty-four times the power, yet it nearly sent me on my way..."
Xu Chunniang shook her head. At least for the time being, she would not consider practicing the Spirit Blast Technique again. Just now, she had only barely been able to control twelve clusters of Explosive Spirit Power, while four had instantly broken free. She had been lucky this time; next time might not be the same.
After calming herself, Xu Chunniang returned to the cave and took out a Jade Slip, preparing to cultivate the Earth Moistening Technique.
"The Earth Moistening Technique is rather similar to the Spiritual Rain Technique. Both are purely auxiliary spells and can be cast over a large area. The Spiritual Rain Technique irrigates spirit plants, allowing them to absorb spiritual energy, while the Earth Moistening Technique channels spiritual energy into the soil where spirit plants are grown, gradually improving the soil's quality over time.
"However, the amount of spiritual energy required for the Spiritual Rain Technique is nearly fixed. It can only be reduced and is difficult to increase, whereas the Earth Moistening Technique has no upper limit at all on its demand for spiritual energy."
Xu Chunniang pondered silently. When she had first discovered this cave, its spiritual energy had already been abundant—roughly three times that of outside.
After she had used the Spiritual Rain Technique countless times, the spiritual energy within the cave had increased a little compared with before, though the change was not particularly obvious.
Even the Spiritual Rain Technique could raise the cave's spiritual energy by a trace. She wondered what surprises this Earth Moistening Technique, specially meant to improve the spiritual energy in soil, would bring her.
The Earth Moistening Technique was exceptionally easy to learn. One merely needed to convert spiritual energy into Earth Spiritual Qi and channel it into the ground, though it had certain requirements regarding the speed of transmission.
It could not be too fast, or the earth would not have time to absorb the spiritual energy, causing it to go to waste. Nor could it be too slow, for then it would have no effect. Moreover, throughout the process, the speed of spiritual energy transmission had to remain constant.
But Xu Chunniang's ability to transform and control spiritual energy had long reached an extremely proficient level. What was the hardest part of the Earth Moistening Technique for others instead became the easiest part for her to cultivate.
In only a few days, she had already mastered it well.
Its only shortcoming was that her Earth Spiritual Root had a purity of just thirty-five points, making her spiritual energy conversion efficiency somewhat low.
Because the Earth Moistening Technique acted directly upon the soil, its casting range was extremely large, more than twice that of the Spiritual Rain Technique.
Over such a vast area, even if Xu Chunniang poured all her spiritual energy into it, the total amount of spiritual energy in the soil would barely change.
Xu Chunniang was not discouraged and quickly came up with an idea. "I'll try shrinking the Earth Moistening Technique's effective range."
With her abundant experience in compressing the casting range of the Spiritual Rain Technique, it did not take long for Xu Chunniang to reduce the Earth Moistening Technique's range to an extremely small area, directly beneath where she sat cross-legged in meditation.
Xu Chunniang closed her eyes and continuously circulated the Earth Moistening Technique, steadily converting the spiritual energy within her body into earth-attributed spiritual energy before slowly channeling it beneath herself.
After transmitting all the spiritual energy in her body, Xu Chunniang sensed the spiritual energy in the soil beneath her. Just as she had expected, it contained faintly more spiritual energy than the surrounding ground!
She opened her eyes, excitement flashing through them. She had used the Earth Moistening Technique at full strength only once, yet its effect could already be felt. Given enough time, it would surely greatly improve the spiritual energy contained within the soil.
The more abundant the spiritual energy, the greater the benefits she would gain from cultivating here.
Xu Chunniang had originally been troubled by the reduced effect of Spiritual Dew, which had slowed her cultivation by half. But with this condensed Earth Moistening Technique, she was confident that her cultivation speed would only be faster than before, never slower.
"I'll first transform this small patch of ground."
Xu Chunniang took a deep breath, suppressing her excitement. She took out Spiritual Dew to replenish her spiritual energy and began her grand transformation project.
In the days that followed, Xu Chunniang focused wholeheartedly on using the Earth Moistening Technique to transform the soil beneath her. It was not until one day, when no matter how she cast the Earth Moistening Technique, she could no longer increase the spiritual energy contained in the soil below, that Xu Chunniang finally stopped.
This process lasted a full three months.
After being continuously nourished by the Earth Moistening Technique for all those days, the soil beneath her had become astonishingly rich in spiritual energy, to the point where it could almost be called "Spirit Soil."
The ring of soil surrounding the Spirit Soil did not possess quite as astonishing an amount of spiritual energy, but its spiritual energy content was still exceptionally high.
More importantly, this spiritual energy had been completely absorbed by the soil and would hardly dissipate at all.
Looking at the fruits of her labor over the past several months, Xu Chunniang nodded in satisfaction.
Sharpening the knife did not delay the chopping of wood. Although creating the Spirit Soil had taken three months, compared to the benefits it could bring, that investment of time was naturally not worth mentioning.
"This condensed version of the Earth Moistening Technique has an effective range dozens of times smaller than the normal Earth Moistening Technique, but it can rapidly increase the spiritual energy in soil in a short time. I'll call it the Spiritual Soil Technique, to distinguish it from the ordinary Earth Moistening Technique."
Xu Chunniang vaguely felt that the Spiritual Soil Technique would be far more helpful to her than the Spiritual Dew Technique.
Although Spiritual Dew could still aid her cultivation, its effect had already been halved compared to when she was at the second level of Qi Condensation. Once she entered the fourth level of Qi Condensation, Spiritual Dew's effectiveness would be reduced even further.
But this Spirit Soil was different. As long as she cultivated atop it, it would benefit her cultivation. And if the spiritual energy in the Spirit Soil became insufficient, she could replenish it at any time.
"Counting the days, seven months have already passed this year. Only five months remain. Time really flies."
Over these seven months, Xu Chunniang had first cultivated the Spirit Concealment Steps, then created the Spirit Soil. She had not deliberately spent time raising her cultivation. Compared to when she had first entered the third level of Qi Condensation, her cultivation had only improved slightly, barely reaching the initial stage of the third level of Qi Condensation.
There was no year-end assessment for new disciples in their second year after joining the sect, but once the three-year newcomer period ended, there would be a major examination. There was still nearly a year and a half before that examination.
Thanks to Fellow Daoist Spicy Dry Pot and Strive On, Younger for their rewards!
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